Your story in my Blog – The Horsefly by Savita Vega

“We’re gonna run it,” said Josh. “Don’t you dare!” said Anna. “We’ll be there by midnight – meet us by the stables.” She didn’t believe him, of course – it was fifteen miles. “Anna, I love you!” said Josh. “Don’t!” she said, and hung up.

Suddenly, there was a taping on the window. “What’s that?” screeched Darcy, Ann’s cousin. “Shhh!” said Anna, “Mom and Dad!” Ann’s own heart began to pound as she pulled back the curtain and pressed her face up to the darkened windowpane. It was Aaron. “Come quick,” he said, motioning. “I can’t believe it,” said Anna, “They’re here!” Hurriedly, the girls made their way out of the house.

Anna stepped into the tackroom and gasped. On a horse-blanket, on the floor, lay Josh, covered in blood, huge gashes running crossways of his thighs and chest. His white track shirt, hanging in shreds. “He hit a barbed-wire fence,” said Aaron, “It was dark, he was way ahead of me…” Anna understood immediately: the new fence, dividing what just last week had been a hundred-acre open field. “We were almost here and he was sprinting for the finish, and….”

Aaron stood outside with Darcy. Though Anna had seen her mother, a veterinarian, sew up horses a hundred times, her hands trembled slightly as she pulled the curved needle through the flesh on Josh’s thigh. “Don’t move,” she said firmly. “I love you,” said Josh, through clenched teeth. A horsefly buzzed against the bare light-bulb on the ceiling.